Rui's eyes narrowed at those words. ('Does he think we're idiots? That's absolute nonsense and everyone knows it.')

The part of the human rights violation was actually true. It was even detailed in the mission bill. The research facility was mass experimenting on human beings relentlessly. The Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfarna used prisoners as test subjects for research and development and the mission detailed how hundreds of bodies were disposed by the research facility every month.

Still, Rui wasn't a fool.

The Martial Union was not a humanitarian or a philanthropic organization. It was an organization that thrived and flourished on human conflict and suffering.

Would such an organization give even the slightest bit of a fuck of human rights violations in another sovereign nation? That too a small nation with no bargaining power with the Kandrian Empire?

('The answer is obvious not.') Rui mused.

The true goal of the mission likely was the research data. Rui had figured this out the very instant Frelmaunt had laid out the objectives of the mission.

What Rui didn't understand was why Frelmaunt stressed on the first objective of eliminating all inhabitants of the Martial Union instead of research data acquisition.

In fact, wasn't eliminating all researchers a bad idea?

If the Martial union secretly stole all the data and allowed the research to continue, wouldn't it gain even more research data in the future that it could steal once more.

Wasn't that ultimately more productive?

('If they had decided to send someone like Kane once a year to use Void Step to secretly infiltrate the research facility, steal all the data, then they would end up with much more research data in the long run.') Rui noted. ('Why not go for something like that?')

There was only one conclusion.

The Martial Union strongly wanted the research to not continue.

('Which means the disincentives and detriments of letting the research continue surpass the benefits of letting it continue.') Rui concluded. ('But why would that be?')

Information by itself did not hurt anybody.

('It's not the information, it's who has it.') Rui realized.

The Martial Union did not want the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfarna to possess the data obtained from the research projects being conducted in the research facility.

This was understandable, of course. Research and development were the cornerstones of civilization and could singlehandedly benefit a country enormously. It was understandable for the Martial Union to want to prevent other nations on getting their hands on a lot of it.

('The fact that the Martial Union is involved means that it's related to Martial Art and not conventional technology.') Rui mused.

The Martial Union did not engage in research of conventional esoteric technology, as far as he knew. If the Vinfarna research facility was engaging in normal esoteric technology research, the Martial Union would likely not bother. The Royal Family would be the one to interfere if that was the case.

This was also supported by the fact that they were experimenting on humans.

('It's quite likely that this research is something that threatens the overwhelming power dynamic advantage that the Kandrian Empire possess over the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana.') Rui mused.

However, he couldn't understand what that could be. It was unlikely that this research wasn't something that the Martial Union had already possessed. Rui was aware of how much the Martial Union invested in the research of Martial Art. The research budgets were large enough for the entire organization to form Martial factions on how the gigantic research budget ought to be allocated.Copyright by Nôv/elDrama.Org.

Rui highly doubted that the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana could match the Martial Union's frightening Martial Art research.

('If the Martial Union already possesses the research data that the Vinfrana research facility has, then it means that the research data is important enough that the Martial Union simply cannot tolerate the state of Vinfrana gaining access it.') Rui deduced.

That made the chances that the research was based on techniques alone to be quite low. A handful of techniques alone would not matter to the Martial Union. All nations developed Martial Art techniques, the cost it took to prevent that was not worth the benefits gained.

If it wasn't techniques that were being researched, then what was it?

Rui was quite curious. Unfortunately, the mission bill did not specify the research that was actually being conducted in the research facility. Which likely meant that Martial Apprentices like themselves had too low of a clearance level to have access to information of this sort.

Still Rui had several of his own suspicions that he put aside for now. The mission was more important. He began scrolling through the data on the research facility provided by the mission bill.

The research facility wasn't small, it was circular and had a diameter of more than a kilometer. The general area of the secret entrances was known; however, the exact locations weren't deduced. Rui immediately realized that this was one of the reasons he was picked for this mission. With Seismic Mapping, he had the ability to detect underground anomalies within a certain depth limit. Unless he was way too far, he should be able to detect one of the entrances of the research facility.

Funnily enough, the mission bill had intel on the general structure of the research facility but not on the location of the entrances.

Thankfully, the security measures weren't beyond their ability. It wasn't that the research facility wasn't important enough to be given higher security, it's just that the Vinfranan government couldn't afford to provide it more security.

Among all the smaller nations, the Commonwealth Duchy of the Vinfrana was most deprived of Martial Artists due to the larger nations. It had had a weaker Martial Art foundation than even a state for its size, and Kandrian Empire had ruthlessly stripped away all of its Martial Artists by attracting them over with the rich and immense learning and growth resources that it had to offer.

It was to the point that the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana was left with nothing but Martial Apprentices!